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The Business of Slavery - Chapter 5

Further on the time of Henry VIII - The Boleyn family and other political scenarios - The bible-study group of Catherine Parr, wife of Henry VIII - John Dee - Religious factionalism - Puritans and business

Further on the time of Henry VIII

British historians have long mentioned elements of intermarriedness in books on the first English mariners, but the proposition here is that the intermarriedness was more dense than they have thought. Various surnames and themes of commercial and maritime endeavour keep cropping up in tandem.

In 1521, Henry VIII had proposed a national effort to establish a company to work the oceans, but it was protested that this would annoy Spain and Portugal and imperil existing business. There would in fact be a trade depression by 1550 or so, and relations between England and the Hapsburg states would cool. England by 1550 had to find new markets. However, Thorne (presumably Thorne of Bristol) had about 1531 collaborated with Roger Barlow to write The Declaration of the Indies, a plan for empire-building in the Pacific, by way of a northern passage - an idea not well-received.

About then, scholars such as Sir Thomas More and his brother-in-law John Rastell wrote of unknown continents, but England was not producing as much relevant information as Spain, Portugal or even Germany - and no one chronicled the Cabot voyages.

News in July 2006: The history websites on this domain now have a companion website, and an updating website as well, on a new domain, at Merchant Networks Project, produced by Dan Byrnes and Ken Cozens (of London).

This new website (it is hoped) will become a major exercise in economic and maritime history, with much attention to London/British Empire and some attention to Sydney, Australia.



Certain trends set in during the reign of Henry VIII (died 1547), who was interested in matters naval. (The English Navy was born it is said "about 1545".) The four themes noted earlier in Chapter 1 here filled some of the voids left by Henry's tendency to despotism. Puritan religious fervour began to settle his country's ambivalence about religious sensibility. Commercial activity increasingly applied a Puritan religious sensibility, and re-energised commerce. This in turn, partly by the agency of the Hawkins family, and many other English mariners, became applied to commercial expansionism, which led also to engagement in slaving business, while few questioned Henry's policy on dominating Ireland.

How this maritime expansionism happened is still not entirely clear. There are some gaps in commercial records from the time England lost its wool-selling base at Calais, France, which require a rethink, and so gaps in topics under consideration here. Some trends in play resemble what is today called a "trickle-down effect", an influence seeping from the top to the bottom of society, and presumably there was an expansive effect on the employment of mariners and crew. Finally, the tendencies leading to engagement in slaving business and piracy were supported by Elizabeth I. But such tendencies came not only from the crown, many of them came from England's senior families.

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The reign of Elizabeth I (born 1533, daughter of Anne Boleyn), began in 1558, preceded by serious religious factionalism before the execution of the always-intriguing Mary Queen of Scots. By the early 1570s, Puritans were pushing new energies into parliament. As a simultaneous movement, elements more Puritan than Catholic were administering England's maritime resources. Thus we see an odd movement in family histories - the Hawkins-Gonson influences on naval developments. But this was preceded by something odder in the histories of notable families at or near the court of England - having to do with religious sensibility and political conservatism versus a search for the new.

Henry VIII's wife Catherine Howard (executed 1540-1542), is said in Encyclopedia Britannica to have come from a family representing little threat to Henry VIII, a "reactionary party"; that is, conservative. Catherine was granddaughter of the Second Duke of Norfolk; whose son Lord Admiral Edward Howard (died 1513-1514), her uncle, seems to one of the few in her extended family with any interest in matters maritime - and with his interest being naval and not commercial.

But a more energetic interest in maritime matters seems to be evidenced by others in the extended families of the unfortunate wives of Henry VIII.

The Boleyn family and other political scenarios

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With the history of English trade, the role of wool producers and dealers, drapers and clothworkers, staplers, clothiers, should never be forgotten.

Kennedy writes that to 1603, in Tudor times the cloth merchants who backed maritime endeavour were pro-Spanish, matters had changed with the 1551-152 cloth slump, and in 1552 arose some English hopes of finding a north-east passage.
Paul M. Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery. London, Allen Lane, 1976., here, Chapter 1.

Various merchant groupings of interest, and information on the conduct of the Calais Wool Staple circa 1545 and later by the English are given by Winchester, especially concerning the later-bankrupting Johnson brothers (their name, originally Jansen). Names noted include: Johnson and Company, wool staplers who bankrupted, with Otwell Johnson a functionary for the Comptroller of the Royal Household, Sir John Gage. These Johnsons, who might have become more interested in maritime endeavour had they not bankrupted, knew Sir Andrew Judde, Sir William Chester, Thomas Lodge, Richard Lambert, the Offleys and the Levesons. Also, Anthony Cave, brother of the diplomat Sir Ambrose Cave; and ex-merchant-draper, Thomas Cromwell, secretary to Cardinal Wolsey.

Winchester (pp. 40ff) gives the story of a friend of Otwell Johnson, Armigill Wade, a Clerk of the Privy Council, known as "The English Columbus". In 1536, one Master Hore of London, "a student of Cosmography", inspired some young courtiers and lawyers (with the king's encouragement) to make a discovery-voyage to north-west parts of America. Hore put up his own ship, Trinity, and sailing on her were Thomas Buts, John Rastell (Hore's son-in-law?), and on another ship, Minion, were Armigill Wade and a London merchant named Oliver Dawbeney (who also knew the Johnsons). Dawbeney later related the story of the voyage to Hakluyt. The expedition got to Cape Breton Island, the difficulties arose of food shortage, and a case of cannibalism. Starving Englishmen were saved by a French ship they were able to capture; and they did see icebergs in northern seas.
Barbara Winchester, Tudor Family Portrait. London, Jonathan Cape, 1955. The Johnsons once had an agent, William Gifford, replaced by one Robert Tempest. Privateering from 1544 as a national English activity is noted, page 246. Notable London merchants circa 1544 (page 251) are: Sir Michael Dormer, Sir William Chester, Thomas Leigh, Sir Andrew Judde, Sir Thomas Offley, Sir Ralph Warren, Stephen Kyrton and David Woodrof.

Yet another theme in this book is the influential role played by Lords Mayor of London, who sometimes had upwardly-mobile children who married into the aristocracy - or became titled in their own right. London Lords Mayor and their ceremony, London aldermen, trade, and political radicalism often formed a united social environment, or a united political front...

London Lord Mayor Geoffrey Boleyn (elected 1457, died 1463) falls into this category, in a somewhat negative sense.
This particular theme, however, is not emphasised in Valerie Hope, My Lord Mayor: Eight Hundred Years of London's Mayoralty. London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson in association with the Corporation of the City of London, 1989. On Boleyn family history see: Retha M. Warnicke, The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family Politics at the Court of Henry VIII. Cambridge University Press, 1989. Antonia Fraser, The Six Wives of Henry VIII. London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1992. Burke's Peerage and Baronetage for Ormonde. Also GEC, Peerage, for Ormond, p. 140; Berkeley, p. 146; Hunsdon, p. 627; Pembroke, p. 403; Rochford, pp. 51-52; Monmouth, pp. 58ff; Hoo, p. 565; Cobham, p. 347.

Geoffrey Boleyn was married to Anne Hoo, great-grandmother of Anne wife of Henry VIII. Anne Hoo was daughter of Thomas, first Baron Hoo and Hastings (a short-lived title) by his first wife, Elizabeth Wychingham. First Baron Hoo had a second wife, Eleanor Welles, of the line of the Barons Welles. In Eleanor's background are names such as Greystoke, Mowbray, Clifford, Seagrave and Beauchamp. This Eleanor had a daughter by Hoo also named Anne; and one Eleanor, who married James Carew. The Carew families became notable for connections with people and exploits in the time of Raleigh and Drake.
On Carew family history, see A. L. Rowse, Raleighs and Throckmortons, variously. Burke's Extinct Baronetcies for Carew. Hasler, The House of Commons, 1558-1603, pp. 537-544. GEC, Peerage, Hoo, p. 565.)

Was this James Carew of the Carew family producing Sir Nicholas Carew, master of horse for Henry VIII? The family producing a cousin of Walter Raleigh, George Carew (1555-1629), first Baron Clopton (and Earl Totness), of anti-Spanish prejudice, who in 1578 was a sea captain under Sir Humphrey Gilbert? George Carew who in 1596 was on an expedition to Cadiz "where he allegedly stole 44,000 ducats of gold from Cadiz Castle". In 1592 he became Lt-General of Ordnance, "inclined" more to the Cecil than the Essex faction. In 1608 he became Master of Ordnance, and "profited from overseas colonisation"; He was from 1609 on the Council for the Virginia Company. He and other militant Carews also helped to keep Ireland subdued; in Ireland he helped suppress the Earl of Tyrone's rebellion. And, one Amy Carew married a mayor of Bristol, Sir John Hawkins, who was possibly of the family that "began English slaving".
Burke's Landed Gentry for Trollope-Bellew of Carew-Casewick-Crowcombe. Lorimer, (Ed.), Amazon, p. 293, Note 10. Hasler, The House of Commons, 1558-1603 on Carews, pp. 539ff. GEC, Peerage, Totness, p. 79. Who’s Who / Shakespeare's England, p. 35, p. 49.

Geoffrey Boleyn's great-granddaughter Anne was executed in 1536. Lord Mayor Geoffrey had a son, William, who had a son, Thomas Boleyn died 1538-1539. This William married Margaret Butler, of the line of the Earls of Ormonde, which Margaret had forebears named Beauchamp, Montagu and Welles.

Thomas Boleyn (died 1538-1539), first Viscount Rochford and Earl Wiltshire, was father of Mary, and Anne who married Henry VIII. (First Viscount Rochford married Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Thomas, second Duke Norfolk by his first wife Elizabeth Tylney.) This Thomas Boleyn was also father of George Boleyn, first Baron Rochford, beheaded on 17 May 1536, two days before his sister Anne was executed. (George's wife Jane Parker was also executed.)

The sister Mary of Anne Boleyn, (wife of Henry VIII, mother of Elizabeth I), married William Carey, a royal privy gentleman; she was mother of Henry Carey (1525-1596) first Baron Hunsford and also first Viscount Rochfort. First Baron Hunsford had a daughter Catherine (died 1602-1603) who married Charles Howard (1536-1624), first Earl Nottingham, a privateer and a joint commander-in-chief against the Spanish Armada, certainly a man of anti-Spanish fervour. First Baron Hunsford also had a son Sir George Carey, a vice-admiral and an anti-Spanish privateer.
Andrews, Elizabethan Privateering, p. 3, pp. 28-29 on family linkages.

Henry VIII ventured afield little in finding some of his wives - names keep recurring in extended families in odd ways. Encyclopedia Britannica indicates, the wife of Henry VIII, Jane Seymour (died 1537), had as brother "a mendacious man", Thomas Seymour, a Lord High Admiral of England (to guard the Channel against English invasion), who once consorted with the pirates he was supposed to suppress; Thomas Seymour, Lord Seymour, beheaded in 1548.
GEC, Peerage, Latimer, p. 484; Seymour of Sudeley, p. 637.

This Thomas Seymour married as his third wife, his former lover, Katherine Parr, formerly wife of Henry VIII. What of her family? Katherine Parr was daughter of Sir Thomas Parr (died 1517) of Kendall, a royal official, whose son had married Katherine the sister of Lady Jane Grey; and Sir Thomas Parr also had a daughter Anne, first wife of colonist William Herbert (1506-1569), first Earl Pembroke, once Lt-General for Beyond the Seas, in 1554, Pembroke who backed Hawkins' slaving voyages and also employed John Dee (on whom, more later).


The bible-study group of Catherine Parr, wife of Henry VIII

From Brenner's book, Merchants and Revolution, it is clear that with some merchant families, genealogical interconnectivity crossed several generations from about 1550-1570, to the time of establishment of the early Russia and Levant companies, to say, Cromwell's time, to 1650. What is less clear with the rise of the "new" English commerce in pre-Elizabethan days, is the influence of upper-class and/or aristocratic families, particularly in the light the "new learning" of Protestantism. (Where, today, say, one might fruitfully read Tawney's book, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism.
R. H. Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism: A Historical Study. Ringwood, Victoria, Pelican, 1966.

That is, how did the religious-commercial linkages form and travel relatively intact across class boundaries, genealogically and ideologically? More so where the rambuctious careers of the English "pirates" such as Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh are concerned?

Certain linkages came from the last years of Henry Viii's reign, partly via the "bible study group" of Henry's last wife, Catherine Parr (1512-1458). Wilson has a book, A Tudor Tapestry, on the religious revolution of Henry's time, partly concerned with Anne Ayscough, (Askew), a Protestant enthusiast who became well-known at court, and in London, who was burned at the stake after being wracked.
(Derek Wilson, A Tudor Tapestry: Men, Women and Society in Reformation England. London, Heinemann, 1972.

Wilson on p. 173 names a king's privy gentleman, Protestant Sir Anthony Denny. On p. 175 and p. 219, Wilson lists the Protestant friends of Queen Catherine Parr, who met regularly, as including:
(1) Lady Herbert, later Countess of Pembroke and sister of the Queen and chief of her privy chamber;
(2) Lady Jane of the Privy chamber, a cousin germane;
(3) the Lady Tyrrwhit/Tyrwhitt of Privy Chamber;
the Lincolnshire Lady, Elizabeth Tyrrwhit, wife of Sir Robert and governess of princess Elizabeth.
(4) Catherine Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, half-Spanish, wife of one of the realm's most powerful men;
(5) Anne, Countess of Hertford, wife of Seymour;
(6) Lady Denny;
(7) Jane Fitzwilliam the third wife of alderman Sir William Fitzwilliam of London, a close friend of Lord Russell;
(8) Anne, Countess of Sussex, married to Henry Radcliffe (Ratcliffe), who differed with her husband on religious matters;
(9) Jane Dudley, wife of the Lord Admiral;
(10) Maud Lane, widow of Sir Ralph Lane and a cousin to Catherine Parr.

On p. 175, Wilson writes, "The predominance of these Protestants at Court decisively influenced the course of major events throughout the last two years of the reign. Its effects were felt in both domestic and foreign affairs" … (and) something also was attributable to the educators of Prince Edward.

Just what were the connections of these ladies for and to the Protestant commercial future?

(1) Lady Herbert was Anne Parr, sister of Catherine, wife of William Herbert (1506-1569), first Earl Pembroke, in the terms of this book, a "coloniser", or promoter of colonisation. This William Herbert was father of Henry Herbert (1534-1600), second earl Pembroke, who married a third wife, Mary Sydney, daughter of a "henchman" of Henry VIII, Henry Sydney, president of the Council of Wales. This Henry Sydney was patron of the Welsh "magus", astrologer, geographer and navigator, John Dee, who taught Richard Chancellor astronomy in Sydney's own house. This Henry Sydney married Mary Dudley (died 1586), daughter of a Lord Admiral. This family group then had serious interests in making England a more skilled maritime power. Dee in time, of course, intrigued Elizabeth I. There were later marital links between the Sydney and Walsingham families.
(Note: Some general cultural contexts in the time of Elizabeth I are well-outlined at a recommended website at: (broken link?): http://www.dipmat.unipg.it/~bartocci/ep2ded.htm/

(2) Lady Jane was: Jane Guildford (died 1554/1555), wife of Lord Admiral John Dudley, (executed 1554), first Duke Northumberland, who had proclaimed Lady Jane Grey; he was also a "timber merchant" with an interest (I presume) in seeing shipping built.
Robert G. Albion, Forests and Sea Power: The Timber Problems of the Royal Navy, 1652-1862. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1926., p. 122). Jane/Joan Guilford was daughter of Edward Guildford, Marshal of Calais. GEC, Peerage, De La War, p. 157; Northumberland, p. 726.

Sir Edward here had married as first wife, Eleanor West, of the line, Barons De La War. Jane Guildford's son Henry Dudley (died 1557) married Winifred Rich, daughter of Richard Rich, first Baron Rich (of whom, more later), which Baron Rich was ancestor of the earls of Warwick, surnamed Rich, who did much to promote Puritan-minded commerce and colonisation in post-Elizabethan times.

(3) was: as Wilson writes, Elizabeth Tyrrwhit, wife of Sir Robert and governess of princess Elizabeth. She was Elizabeth Oxenbridge. This Elizabeth's daughter, Ursula, married "colonist", Edmund Sheffield (1565-1646), first Earl Mulgrave, third Baron Sheffield, a leader against the Spanish Armada; by 1609 with the Virginia Company and by 1620 with the New England Company; which Ursula became mother of Mary who married Ferdinando Fairfax, second Baron Fairfax.
See Lorimer, (Ed.), Amazon, p. 291, Note 6; GEC, Peerage, Fairfax, p. 230; Mulgrave, p. 389. Burke's Landed Gentry for Tyrwhitt; Burke's Extinct Baronetcies for Tyrwhitt of Stainfield. The Oxenbridge name also married to Monson, and to Sydenham.

(4) was: Catherine Willoughby, (1519-1580), daughter of Lord William Willoughby (died 1526), eleventh Lord Willoughby of Eresby, of Parham, by his second wife. She married Charles Brandon, first Duke Suffolk, who is mentioned in Hamel's book as helping promote voyages to Russia. Willoughby of Parham became a figure noted in seventeenth century struggles for control of England's Caribbean resources.
See Josef Hamel, England and Russia; comprising The Voyages of John Tradescant The Elder, Sir Hugh Willoughby, Richard Chancellor, Nelson and others, to the White Sea. London, Richard Bentley, 1854. (Translated by John Studdy Leigh)., pp. 19ff.

(5) Anne, Countess of Hertford, was: Anne Stanhope, second wife of the Earl of Hertford, Lord Admiral/Lord Protector, Duke of Somerset, Edward Seymour (died 1556/1552). Edward, the father of Thomas Seymour, long-term paramour of Catherine Parr, wife of Henry VIII. Here is the family of Jane Seymour, consort of Henry VIII and mother of Edward VI, died 1553.
Hasler, The House of Commons, 1558-1603, p. 595. Burke's Peerage and Baronetage for Burgh, GEC, Peerage, for Cromwell, p. 558; Despenser, p. 292; Latimer, p. 484; Seymour of Sudeley, p. 637; Somerset, p. 84 (genealogical table); Ughtred, p. 165; Winchester, p. 763-764.

(6) was: Lady Denny. Probably, Joan Champernowne, wife of Sir Anthony Denny (died 1573/1574), an executor of Henry VIII. Joan being daughter of Sir Philip Champernowne.
A. L. Rowse, Raleigh and the Throckmortons, p. 130; Hasler, The House of Commons, 1558-1603, p. 27, p. 369.) Sir Philip had a daughter Katherine Champernowne, sister of Joan, who married Walter Raleigh (1505-1581) the Elder, father of Walter the famous pirate/navigator. Walter the Elder here also married one Joan Drake, also a link to a famous pirating name.

Sir Anthony Denny had a "colonist" son, MP Sir Edward Denny (1547-1600), a follower of first Earl Essex, with him in Ireland.
Burke's Extinct Baronetcies for Carew; GEC, Peerage, Norwich, p. 767, Note e. This Sir Edward married a maid of honour to Elizabeth I, Margaret Edgecumbe.

(7) was Jane, wife of London alderman Fitzwilliam, no information.

(8-9) was: Anne, Countess of Sussex. Anne Calthorpe, second wife of second Earl Sussex, second Viscount Fitzwalter, Henry Radcliffe (1506-1556-1557), daughter of Sir Philip Calthorpe.
GEC, Peerage, Fitzwilliam, pp. 488-489. This Henry Radcliffe had a first wife, Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Thomas, second Duke of Norfolk.

(10) was Maud Lane. Being Maud Parr, daughter of first Baron Parr, William Parr, and Mary Salisbury. This Maud was mother of Ralph Lane, who became a "colonist", a privateer, a first governor of Virginia/North Carolina, who served in Ireland and was equerry to Elizabeth 1.
Rowse, Elizabethans and America, p. 35.

Ralph Lane's sister Lettice married the anti-Spanish MP, and defender of Parliament, Peter Wentworth; which Peter Wentworth had a second wife named Walsingham. (We find that Elizabeth's secretary, Walsingham, had a wife, Ursula St Barbe, who was also descended from Thomas Hoo and Eleanor Welles noted above).

Wilson also notes the faction of Norfolk (the second Duke), Gardiner, Wriothesley and Rich. ("Baron Rich's devious mind".) Here, Wriothesley is Lord Chancellor, Thomas Wriothesley (died 1550), first Earl Southampton Rich is first Baron Rich, father of Winifred named above.

And so, the connections of Catherine Parr's "Protestant bible study group" had a great deal to do with the promotion of new varieties of English commerce and maritime endeavour. It is only a generation or two between their time, and the agricultural colonisation of Virginia. This generational shift in outlook falls untidily between Tudor and Elizabethan times, but the social levels involved, which retained links to royalty, also influenced the lower orders and the merchant classes - partly via Protestant enthusiasm.

The connections of the study-group members here, drawn from narrow and often genealogically-linked social grouping, fulfill the four themes being pursued here: domination of Ireland, interest in colonisation/maritime endeavour, the expansion of the powers of Parliament, and anti-Spanish prejudice. Wilson is correct: Parr's bible-study group was part and parcel of a long-term and increasingly effective colonising-and-commercial revolution which contributed to the development of an Empire. Remarkably, some related genealogical linkages were long-lasting enough to one day stretch to Australia, still terra incognita.

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Note on first Baron Rich:
Sir Richard Rich, Baron1 Rich Lord Chancellor, Lawyer (1496-1567/1568), Speaker House of Commons, son of Richard Rich and Joan Dingley. Baron Rich married Elizabeth Jenks. They had five sons and ten daughters.

Baron John Campbell, in The Lives of the Chief Justices of England from the Norman Conquest till the Death of Lord Tenterden. (Four Vols. London, Murray, 1874., Vol. 2, pp. 143ff.), regards his career as "sordid, unprincipled, dissolute". Rich had a great mansion at Great St Bartholomews, and was "virtually an army contractor" for the monies for wars in France and Scotland. He became solicitor-general to the King. Burke's Extinct Baronetcies, p. 441, calls him an intriguing lawyer using "pliancy, profligacy and some said, perjury" to make his way.
References: Rich's own DNB entry. Burke's Peerage and Baronetage for Rich. GEC, Peerage, Lumley, pp. 277ff. Hasler, The House of Commons, 1558-1603, p. 658 re his daughter's marriage to Roth; and Hasler, p. 59 for his daughter Audrey; Hasler, pp. 215-222 for marriage of his daughter Elizabeth to Robert Peyton (d. 1590). Who's Who in Shakespeare's England, p. 176.

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Religious factionalism

Evolving quite close to the royal court, but perhaps seemingly camouflaged from view by Henry VIII's despotic influences versus the religious tensions he had let loose within England's domestic society, a patriotic Protestantism turning to anti-Catholicism, not to speak of his marital atrocities, was a new English spirit increasingly concerned with maritime endeavour. This spirit was more interested in offence than defence, and rightly so, given the dread prospect later to be posed by the Spanish Armada; a spirit strongly anti-Spanish, but in its political expression at home in parliament, increasingly at odds with the royal, dynastic and Catholic families of Europe. Still, it would be a long time before England aspired to actual mastery of the seas - or had the skills to remain a master.

With these moves to marine endeavour and colonisation, plus Puritanism, England's anti-Spanish feeling was complex, as it moved from theological disapproval, to rivalry about senses of cultural superiority, ethnic hatred, awareness of high-level political difficulties that might arise from royal marriages, envy of Spanish silver supplies from South America/New World and ordinary commercial frustration. (If the Spanish could not control the Barbary pirates, nor could the English.)
A good treatment of the impact of Spanish silver on European economies and other useful overviews is given in Fernand Brandel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. Vol. 1. (Translated by Sian Reynolds) Sydney, Perennial Library, Harper and Row, 1960.

Given the history of European royalty since pre-Crusades times, the Welsh-English Tudors had come from comparatively nowhere, but they succeeded in extricating the English throne from the tentacles of the originally-French Angevines and Capetians. It was the task of Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII Tudor, to keep the English throne away from those families, a task which her rival, Mary, Queen of Scots, would never have accomplished. Elizabeth I inherited from her father a four-themed legacy which she had to reshape as best she could, and in which she succeeded well. A legacy which gave an anti-Spanish complexion to her reign, independently of any plans to see her married.

The themes influenced parliamentary behaviour, and as some historians have noted, critically of Elizabeth, enriched her coffers at the expense of any system of continued fair play on the high seas. Regrettably, her legacies did the Negro race little good in future.

Examination of the careers of the above-mentioned trading figures, their families, and associates, provides evidence for further claims about a surprisingly narrow genealogical base for the expansion of English trade, as we shall see. (Although admittedly, one would like to know much more about the views of noted operators in England's cloth trades, in all social classes at the time.) As well, if one is metaphysically inclined, it is interesting to note the preoccupations, including cartography, of the "English magus", and "secret agent to Elizabeth 1", John Dee (1527-1608).

The four themes given here are often revealed by the actions of members of a single aristocratic family across any 20-30 year period - continued domination of Ireland, continued expansion of maritime-derived wealth from international trade. Continued colonisation. And in England itself, rivalry between the powers and prerogatives of parliament and those of royalty. Sir Walter Raleigh once said, there were 600 more like him in Devon. He seemed to mean, he was merely one part of a social movement. Many others thought as he did, and he certainly was interested in expanding England's interests overseas, and in promoting them in the face of Spanish overseas activity.

It was with traditions formed from these four themes, that the British from 1786 possessed Australia - and the existence of the traditions shows as much in British genealogy as it does in books - maybe more clearly, as we shall see...

The Puritans of the City of London needed to be able to trust their primary-producing, Puritan-minded friends in far-flung colonies. A lack of such trust produced the Virginia Company squabbles of the 1620s. One of the reasons for the later American Revolution was that North Americans finally felt obliged to withdrew that trust, to protect their own interests.

Despite the tradition referred to, Australian historians for generations have erred with some information concerning linkages between English expansionism, merchant activity, and names which ought to be mentioned in respect of England's maritime heritage. One mistake has been in mentioning Hakluyt as the commentator on maritime matters, deflecting attention from John Dee (1527-1607). Correcting this error assists us in understanding some of the cultural megalomania behind England's expansionism - a megalomania that was multi-faceted - and came from Dee.

John Dee

John Dee (1527-1607) had many roles in life, as alchemist, cartographer, an adviser to the mighty on matters arcane.
Useful details are available in G. R. Elton, England under the Tudors. London, Methuen, 1955.

Dee's father became a physician in ordinary to Charles I. Sir John Cheke promoted Dee to Secretary Sir William Cecil, who had met Dee by 1567. Dee was a friend of Sir Thomas Browne, a contact of the Freemason and antiquarian, Elias Ashmole; and he knew map-maker Gerard Mercator. Dee was once introduced into royal presence by William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, a grandmaster of Freemasons and a son of Mary Sidney; and the Earl of Leicester, Lord Robert Dudley.

Dee once visited St. Helena... Walsingham once sent Dee on a mission to Germany (see below on Walsingham-St. Barbe).

Dee lived on the Thames banks at Mortlake, Surrey, and as student of navigation, he was a promoter of the discovery of terra australis, despite vagueness as to its location; he is not however mentioned as such in McIntyre's book, The Secret Discovery of Australia.

Dee's influence as cartographer and theorist on navigation-colonisation can be traced to a variety of history relating to Henry Sidney (Earl Romney, 1641-1704), some plans for the first voyages made for the English Muscovy Company, the careers of Mercator, Sir Francis Drake and possibly Sir Walter Raleigh; along with some early English anti-Spanish maritime endeavours.

Mariners, colonists, merchant adventurers and political and other commentators mentioned in connection with Dee (and very often, prior to the defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1588) include:
John Davis of Dartmouth, Raleigh, secretary Walsingham, William Sanderson, Richard Chancellor, the Earl of Northumberland (his joint-stock company formed in 1552 with the use of a north-west passage in view). Dee's views on the north-west passage seem to have been influential. In any case, once Brenner's information on trade to and from Virginia from about 1620 is absorbed, it becomes easier to understand the chains of merchant names which are to be mentioned in respect of convict transportation and other matters. Dee was a kind of mystical-intellectual powerhouse - and from time to time, he wondered about "terra australis". Australians should know about him for this very reason, although generally, geographer Dee is best known to encyclopedias as a magus, alchemist, a student of magic, a dreamer.
On John Dee: Sources: James A. Williamson, The Age of Drake. London, Adam and Charles Black, 1938; Elton, Tudor England, p. 337, p. 352. A. L. Rowse, An Elizabethan Garland. London, Macmillan, 1953., pp. 102ff. Brenner, Merchants and Revolution, p. 108 and elsewhere. Dee's DNB entry. Australian writer and academic Michael Wilding has lately published on Dee a book which I have not yet read.
Michael Wilding, Raising Spirits: Making Gold and Swapping Wives: The True Adventures of Dr John Dee and Sir Edward Kelly. Abbott Bentley, 2000.

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Puritans and business:

Endnotes:
Among the many descendants of Geoffrey and Ann Boleyn and their extended families are many figures notable in English expansionism, or, maritime history, including:
Sir Thomas Boleyn (died 1538) the first Viscount Rochford and eighth earl of Ormond;
Henry Carey (1525-1596) a noted figure in maritime history, first Baron Hunsdon;
(GEC, Peerage, Hunsdon, pp. 625ff; Wentworth, pp. 508ff; Effingham, p. 10; Rochford, p. 52.)

Abigail Cokayne who married John Carey (1608-1677) second Earl Dover.
(GEC, Peerage, Rochford, p. 52; Hunsdon, p. 630.)
Abigail's father was Sir William Cokayne (1561-1626), Lord Mayor (1619-1620), son of a prominent merchant tailor, married to a second wife, Mary Morris, promoter of the ill-fated Cokayne project. He was responsible for the Corporation of the City of London for their lands in Ireland; so he was the technical founder of Londonderry. His daughters married several aristocrats, his son Charles became first Viscount Cullen.
(Rabb, Enterprise, p. 206. Hasler, History of Parliament, Vol. 2, p. 345. Brenner, Merchants and Revolution, on "Cockayne's Project", p. 59, p. 78, p. 87. GEC, Peerage, Cullen, p. 561; Campden, p. 516; Leeds, p. 509; Kilmorey, p. 261; Lindsey, p. 20; Holdernesse, p. 534; Nottingham, p. 789.)
In 1614, James I appointed Cokayne controller of the king's Merchant Adventurers, a company with a monopoly to sell dressed and dyed cloth to the Baltic. "Cockayne's Project" was designed to steal such trade from the Dutch, but it folded. Cokayne was also interested in Nova Scotia.

Catherine Carey (died 1602) the wife of Charles Howard (1536-1624) second Baron Howard of Effingham. He maintained a set of stage players (in "Shakespeare’s world of theatre") and jointly-commanded English moves against the Spanish Armada.
(Who’s Who /Shakespear's England, p. 123, p. 140. Hasler, History of Parliament, Vol. 2, p. 344, and p. 422. GEC, Peerage, Norfolk, tabulations; St John, p. 335; Nottingham, p. 782; Effingham, p. 10; Kildare, p. 240; Monson of Bellinguard, p. 68; Mordaunt, p. 200; St John, p. 335; Tyrconnell, p. 113; Northumberland, p. 726; Willoughby, p. 692; Galloway, p. 604.)
Howard had licences to export woolen cloths and in 1598 to trade with Guinea. His titles became extinct. Charles' father, the first Baron Howard of Effingham, William (1510-1572/73), Lord High Admiral (1553-1557) is said to have been greatly instrumental in Elizabeth I gaining her throne.
(Who’s Who /Shakespeare's England, p. 224. GEC, Peerage, Dudley, p. 482; Effingham, p. 9. Bath, p. 19. Nottingham, p. 782. Information on an earlier period can be found in Gordon Connell-Smith, Forerunners of Drake: A Study of the English Trade with Spain in the early Tudor Period. London, Longmans Green and Co., 1954.)
Mary Cokayne (1598-1650) the sister of Abigail above, and wife of third Baron Howard of Effingham, Charles Howard, the son of Charles Howard and Catherine Carey above. (1579-1642);
(Hasler, History of Parliament, Vol. 3, p. 343. GEC, Peerage, Nottingham, p. 788; Effingham, p. 10.)

The privateer Sir Richard Leveson, who married a daughter of Mary Cokayne above; (He was son of the vice-admiral of Wales.
(Andrews, Elizabethan Privateering, p. 29.)

The privateer and vice-admiral of Norfolk and Suffolk, Sir Robert Southwell (1563-1598);
(Hasler, History of Parliament, Vol. 3, p. 422. GEC, Peerage, Carrick, p. 60; Willoughby, p. 692; Northumberland, p. 727. Who’s Who /Shakespeare's England, p. 236. Andrews, Elizabethan Privateering, p. 29.)

An anti-Spanish rear-admiral, who sailed under Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Francis Drake in 1578, Sir Francis Knollys (1550-1648); he was son of the Puritan and statesman, Sir Francis Knollys (1512/14-1596) who married Catherine Carey (died 1569), daughter of William Carey and Mary Boleyn, the parents of Henry, first Baron Hunsdon.
(Hasler, History of Parliament, pp. 408-409. GEC, Peerage, Northumberland, p. 734; Paget, p. 284. Who’s Who /Shakespeare' England, p. 141. J. Shakespear, John Shakespear of Shadwell and his Descendants, 1619-1931. Self-published, Newcastle UK, 1931., tabulations, pp. 80ff and notes thereto.)

Walter Devereux (1539-1576), second Viscount Hereford, who married Lettice Knollys, daughter of Catherine Carey and Sir Francis Knollys above; the colonisation of Ulster cost him £25,000.
(GEC, Peerage, Hereford, p. 479; Northumberland, p. 734; Southampton, p. 130; Carlisle, p. 32; Essex, pp. 140ff; Percy, p. 470; Ferrers, pp. 329-332.)

The colonist and Republican Robert Sydney (1595-1677) who married Dorothy Percy (1564-1659);
(His own DNB entry. GEC, Peerage, Sydney of Chiselhurst, St Leonards and Scadbury, p. 591; Romney, p. 83; Halifax, p. 243; Strangford, p. 359. Who’s Who /Shakespeare's England, p. 177, p. 190. Dorothy Percy was daughter of the third Earl Northumberland, Henry Percy (1564-1632) and Dorothy Devereux.)

The republican hanged for his views, Algernon Sydney (1640-1683), an ancestor of Thomas Townshend, first Viscount Sydney, a major planner of Britain's first convict colony at Sydney, Australia.
(Alan Atkinson, The Europeans in Australia. Vol. 1, The Beginning. Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1997. Here, Algernon Sydney is noted as an ancestor of Thomas Townshend, Lord Sydney, p. 51.)

James Hay, ambassador, much in favour with Charles I, first Earl Carlisle (1580-1636), "proprietor of the Caribbean". This earl of Carlisle spent £400,000 in his lifetime, died debt-entangled, and left nothing for his heirs. This earl Carlisle's commercial associates were: Marmaduke Roydon (Rawdon?), William Perkins and Alexander Bannister, of whom little is known. His son by Honora Denny was James Hay (1605-1660), second earl Carlisle, who by 1639 had hereditary rights to Barbados, but his line became extinct.
(Newton, Colonising Puritans, p. 30. Also, Arthur P. Newton, (Ed.), The European Nations in the West Indies, 1493-1688. London, Black, 1933. Robert M. Bliss, Revolution and Empire: English Politics and the American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century. Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1990., p. 33 and p. 67.
GEC, Peerage, Carlisle, pp. 32ff; Denny, p. 187; Norwich, p. 769.
Hay eloped with his second wife, Lucy Percy (1599-1660), daughter of Henry Percy, third Earl of Northumberland. Agnes Strickland, Lives of the Queens of England from the Norman Conquest. Vol. V. Anne of Denmark queen-consort of James the First, King of Great Britain and Ireland. Bath, Cedric Chivers Ltd., 1972. Also, Agnes Strickland, Lives of the Queens of England from the Norman Conquest. Mary II, Queen-Regent of Great Britain and Ireland, consort of William III. Vol. VII. Bath, Cedric Chivers Ltd., 1972.; Vol. 5, p. 284. Who’s Who /Shakespeare's England. Richard S. Dunn, Sugar and Slaves: The Rise of the Planter Class in the English West Indies, 1624-1730. London, Jonathan Cape, 1973. maps, p. 49 and Note 10; pp. 50, 55. Godfrey Davies, The Early Stuarts, 1603-1660. The Oxford History of England. Oxford University Press, 1959., p. 326.

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The daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham (1532-1590) and Ursula St Barbe, Frances Walsingham (1567-1631), who became the wife successively of Philip Sydney (1554-1586), first Earl Leicester, promoter of International Protestantism; second husband Robert Devereux (1566-1601), second Earl Essex; then Richard De Burgh, fourth Earl Clanrickarde (third husband).
Sydney was the nephew of Robert Dudley, first Earl Leicester (d. 1588). On Walsingham and Ursula St Barbe: GEC, Peerage, Clanricarde, p. 231; Nottingham, p. 235; Essex, p. 142; Burke's Extinct Baronetcies for Worsley, p. 580. Hasler, History of Parliament, Vol. 3, p. 574, calls Ursula "shadowy to posterity", and it is difficult to find if her father is named Henry or John.) I am grateful here to Mark Williams (UK) for email on St Barbe genealogy. See also a new work, Margaret Urquhart, Sir John St. Barbe, Bt. Of Broadlands. Southampton, Paul Cave Publications Ltd., 1983.
Newton, Colonising Puritans, p. 30. Also, Arthur P. Newton, (Ed.), The European Nations in the West Indies, 1493-1688. London, Black, 1933. Robert M. Bliss, Revolution and Empire: English Politics and the American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century. Manchester, Manchester University Press. 1990., p. 33 and p. 67.
GEC, Peerage, Carlisle, pp. 32ff; Denny, p. 187; Norwich, p. 769. Hay eloped with his second wife, Lucy Percy (1599-1660), daughter of Henry Percy, third Earl of Northumberland. Agnes Strickland, Lives of the Queens of England from the Norman Conquest. Vol. V. Anne of Denmark queen-consort of James the First, King of Great Britain and Ireland. Bath, Cedric Chivers Ltd., 1972. Also, Agnes Strickland, Lives of the Queens of England from the Norman Conquest. Mary II, Queen-Regent of Great Britain and Ireland, consort of William III. Vol. VII. Bath, Cedric Chivers Ltd., 1972.; Vol. 5, p. 284. Who’s Who in Shakespeare's England. Richard S. Dunn, Sugar and Slaves: The Rise of the Planter Class in the English West Indies, 1624-1730. London, Jonathan Cape, 1973. maps, p. 49 and Note 10; pp. 50, 55. Godfrey Davies, The Early Stuarts, 1603-1660. The Oxford History of England. Oxford University Press, 1959., p. 326.

Ursula St Barbe evidently inherited Walsingham's premises in Seething Lane, London. (The Seething Lane site had earlier been "headquarters" of the navy in the time of Sir William Winter, noted in earlier files.) So that Frances inherited the site.

Later Robert Devereux (1590-1646) was born there, as his grandmother was Frances. This Seething Lane address, probably the one becoming No. 33, evidently stayed with the St Barbe family, for after the 1770s, No. 33 Seething Lane was the address of the whaler and convict contractor interested in the Pacific, John St Barbe. Unfortunately, and despite recent inquiries, the St Barbe genealogy is broken between 1710-1770, so it is impossible to unequivocally explore this possibility.

Robert Devereux (1566-1601), the executed favourite of Elizabeth I, nineteenth Earl Essex and third Viscount Hereford, executed as a rebel, once took part in an expedition against the Azores.
GEC, Peerage, Essex, pp. 141-142; Southampton, p. 133; Ferrers, pp. 329-332; Somerset, p. 73; Burlington, p. 431; Bouchier, p. 250; Clanricarde, pp. 230ff; Winchilsea, p. 778.

Robert Rich, first earl Warwick, (1559-1618), whose son Robert (1587-1658), the second Earl of Warwick was to become an extraordinarily influential figure in promoting both privateering provocation of the Spanish, and Caribbean and North American trade.

The privateer George Carey (1541-1616), who married Lettice a daughter of the first Earl of Warwick, above. He was once to be treasurer in Ireland. He invested money in voyages by Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Thomas Cavendish.
Hasler, History of Parliament, on Careys, Vol. 1, p. 546.

The beheaded wife of Henry VIII, the mother of Elizabeth I ... The implications are that Elizabeth I was surrounded by relatives, including a great number of aristocrats, who were powerfully interested in provoking the Spanish, expanding English trade internationally, in creating colonies and developing sea power, and as a corollary, ensuring that Ireland remained no threat to England, since it would remain occupied by England. In this, Elizabeth had few choices, she could not deny such people, and in many ways, histories of English sea power which emphasise the maritime exploits of Hawkins, Drake and Raleigh, under-emphasise these thematic aspects seen in and around the genealogy of the Boleyn family. What the great Boleyn family did was help to create a model for activity, in society generally, that became a Puritan-dominated social movement in England, particularly for families from England's south-western areas, especially Devon and Somerset, the areas from which Drake and Raleigh and many of their comrades were recruited. Newbolt's poem, Drake's Drum, written long-later, celebrates such adventurism.

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